Local father and son team, Gary and Dan Graves, started their new podcast as a way to help University of Michigan athletes with one of the biggest topics of conversation in modern college athletics.

Both are Michigan alum and both live in Saline. They said they started their podcast to help Michigan student-athletes with NIL (name-image-likeness). The Sun Times News (STN) connected with Gary to learn more about them trying to do their small part to provide opportunities for U of M student-athletes.

“We created ‘Leaders and Next’ with a goal to be a different type of podcast,” Gary said.

He said the athletes get to tell their “story” versus just talking about their sport.   

Their podcast, similar to a radio talk show, is adigital audio program on their website consisting of a series of episodes of them having conversations with athletes.  

“Instead of only focusing on Xs and Os, we want to highlight the whole student-athlete, exploring their journey to Michigan and better understanding who they are not only on but off the field,” Gary said.

In addition, they said, “while we donated to the Athletic Department at U of M….and gave to the NIL collective ‘Champions Circle’…we wanted a more direct way to support the student-athletes and we can do that by paying them to appear on our podcast.”

STN asked them to explain what NIL is.

Gary said NIL has fundamentally changed the college athletics landscape and to effectively compete for talent, “student-athletes need to see an opportunity to benefit from their name-image-likeness.”

“In the simplest of terms, Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) is a term that describes the means through which college athletes are allowed to receive financial compensation,” Gary answered. “NIL refers to the use of an athlete’s name, image, and likeness through marketing and promotional endeavors.” 

The NCAA officially made it legal for athletes to profit off of their NILs on July 1, 2021. 

“This has radically changed college athletics for every college and every athlete in college,” Gary said. “One outcome of this is that ‘collectives’ have been formed.”  

NIL collectives are independent organizations that fundraise money for various universities and give it to attending college athletes in the form of NIL agreement payouts.

“Several NIL collectives guide their athletes through the NIL endorsement landscape,” he said. “The largest collective supporting U of M is Champions Circle https://www.championscircleuofm.com/.”

Their audience is college football fans with a primary focus on Michigan fans. They noted for local businesses that Leaders and Next can help businesses utilize these influential athletes to grow their business via social media.

Their first episode has Michigan quarterback Davis Warren joining them to talk about his journey to Michigan, balancing football and business school, and sharing an all-time great Jim Harbaugh story.

To learn more and listen to the episodes go to: https://leadersandnext.com/.